EU Approves Merger of Nordic Mobile Payments Firms MobilePay, Vipps

Denmark-based digital payments app MobilePay has announced that the EU Commission has approved its merger with Norway-based smartphone digital payments app Vipps.

The new group — which is named “Vipps MobilePay” and will be headquartered in Oslo, Norway — will be effective beginning Nov. 1, MobilePay said Friday (Oct. 21) in a press release.

The merger establishes a prominent Nordic and European mobile wallet, as the new joint group will have around 11 million users, 400,000 merchants and 900 million transactions per year, according to the release.

“Our ambition is to create the best and most complete supplier of mobile payment services in Europe based on constant growth and innovation for the benefit of our users and business customers,” Claus Bunkenborg, current CEO of MobilePay and member of the management team of the new company, said in the release.

The new joint group will design a new organization across the markets it serves — Norway, Denmark, Finland and Lithuania — and the common platform will allow them to develop solutions for customers more quickly by pooling resources and gaining scale. Topping the agenda are enhanced solutions for eCommerce and cross-border mobile payments, according to the press release.

This merger, which was at the time still subject to approval by the European Union’s competition authorities, was announced in June 2021.

Read more: How Nordic Payments Megastructure Can Drive Greater Regional Integration, Harmonization

In a February interview with PYMNTS, Vipps CEO Rune Garborg said that once the merger was approved by competition authorities, it would enable Vipps to introduce new and simple solutions for customers and merchants much faster than their competitors.

See also: Intense Competition From Big Techs Keeps Nordic Payment Firms On Their Toes

As PYMNTS reported in November, one way to characterize the Nordic countries when it comes to payments innovation is “small but mighty.”

More here: Nordic Mobile Wallets Must Collaborate to Fend off Competition From Global Players

As Bunkenborg said of the region during an interview with PYMNTS at the time: “We have a very low use of cash, for instance, and you will have a hard time finding a shop anywhere in the Nordics that doesn’t accept contactless payments.”